Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/05/11

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Subject: [Leica] Leitz Summarit 50mm, F/1.5 SM
From: dorysrus at mindspring.com (Don Dory)
Date: Tue May 11 22:25:31 2004

George,
The Summarit can be a quite lovely lens.  Wide open, it looks like this:
http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=989539

Stopped down to F4 it is quite sharp although the contrast levels are
fairly low.  As a specialty lens it can be quite effective either for
portraits or for color work where a pastel palette is desired.

I would not contemplate getting this lens as my only fast 50.  On a
budget one of the Soviet Sonnar clones would be my first choice,
followed by the 50 1.4 Nikkor in LTM, the 50 1.4 Canon in LTM, and last
or maybe first, the new 50 Nokton.  If money is not really an issue,
then wait for Photokina as rumors exist that the R Summilux will be made
in M mount.

Build quality is excellent, coatings are truly dreadful, aperture is
perfectly round.  Buy a heavy cleaning mark example and pay John at
focalpointlens.com something over $200 to clean, lube, polish, and
recoat the lens.  The top example is after John finished with my very
early example.

Don
dorysrus@mindspring.com

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf
Of George Linn
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 7:10 AM
To: lug@leica-users.org
Subject: [Leica] Leitz Summarit 50mm, F/1.5 SM

Anyone on list familiar with or have experience using the Summarit 50mm
F/1.5 screwmount, ser. # 1276xxx.  I know the coatings are soft, but
have never used one to test the image quality. Any comment would be much
appreciated.
George
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In reply to: Message from linn at cham-cor.com (George Linn) ([Leica] Leitz Summarit 50mm, F/1.5 SM)